Five British doubles semi-finalists on the WTA & ATP Tours

Posted by author February 10, 2025 Tennis

Catch up on all the biggest news and results from the British tennis players competing around the world as Olivia Nicholls, Emily Appleton, Lloyd Glasspool, Julian Cash and Jamie Murray made semi-finals and Emily Webley-Smith captured a doubles title.

Five British doubles reach tour-level semi-finals

Five British players reached WTA and ATP Tour semi-finals in an impressive week for the doubles stars.

In Dubai, British No.1 Olivia Nicholls and Australian Olivia Gadecki put in strong performances to beat Xinyu Jiang and Fang-Hsien Wu, followed by Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi – both in deciding match tie-breaks.

In the semi-finals of the Abu Dhabi Open, Nicholls and Gadecki were eventually defeated by fourth seeds Kristina Mladenovic and Zhang Shuai 6-1, 6-4 to bring an end to their title hopes.

The 30-year-old British star is now up to world No.40 in the WTA doubles rankings.

Lloyd Glasspool and Julian Cash continued their impressive start to 2025 with a semi-final run at the ATP 500 in Rotterdam.

The Brits – who have already won a title in Brisbane and made the Australian Open quartyer-finals together – knocked out second seeds Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz in the quarters 6-3, 6-4 to reach the final four.

However, it wasn’t to be for the unseeded duo, eventually losing out to Australian Open runners-up and eventual champions Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 7-6(1), 7-6(3).

Emily Appleton enjoyed her best result of the season so far in Cluj – teaming up with Qianhui Tang to make the semi-finals of the WTA 250 event.

Fourth seeds Appleton and Tang knocked out home favourites Simona Halep and Anna Bogdan in the opening round followed by a gutsy 6-7(3), 6-3, 10-8 victory against Maja Chwalinska and Anastasia Detiuc.

Their run came to an end against Belgium’s Magali Kempen and Czech Republic’s Anna Siskova 7-5, 4-6, 10-6 in the semis.

Meanwhile in Dallas, Jamie Murray returned to winning ways at the ATX Open with John Peers – making their first semi-final of the season.

Murray and Peers saved four match points to beat fellow Brit Luke Johnson and his partner Sander Arends in the quarter-finals 4-6, 7-6(9), 10-6, but were eventually defeated by American duo Christian Harrison and Evan King 6-4, 6-2.

Murray jumps two places in the rankings to world No.23.